1,3,5-Triiodo-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TITNB) from benzene: Balancing performance and high thermal stability of functional energetic materials

In order to deal with biohazards from nature or biological weapons, it is urgent and necessary to develop functional energetic materials as an ingredient of agent defeat weapons (ADWs). Now, 1,3,5-triiodo-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TITNB, 1) was obtained from benzene by an easy two-step reaction. The structure of 1 was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Compound 1 has a remarkable experimental density of 3.05 g cm⁻³ at room temperature and a good detonation performance. In addition, it contains 64.44% iodine and has a high decomposition temperature of 367 °C. These fascinating properties make it very attractive for high performance applications such as agent defeat weapons (ADWs).